Watchdog

The North County Transit District security chief who was being paid $333,000 in combined public pension and paycheck will have to give some of it back, as the state has decided he was breaking rules against double-dipping.

In a letter dated June 1, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System informed the district and security chief Tom Zoll that he was not entitled to pension payments dating back to July 1, 2011.

This means that Zoll will have to repay about $35,000. The district and Zoll also owe the state for retirement contributions that were not made during that time, the letter states.

Both the transit district and safety employees in 2011 contributed 9 percent toward an employee’s retirement, meaning the district and Zoll would likely be liable for a combined $20,000 in back contributions.

Zoll was a longtime sheriff’s deputy, and his $180,000 pension from that service is unaffected because the county has a separate pension system.

He served six years as Carlsbad police chief, ending in 2009, and received $38,400 a year from that pension — which is affected because Carlsbad and NCTD both use CalPERS to administer their pensions.

NCTD tapped Zoll, then retired, as interim security chief in July 2010. The district named him to the job on a permanent basis last month, with a salary of $136,510 a year, after The Watchdog inquired about how he was able to work and collect a pension at the same time.

Zoll was paid nearly $115,000 a year in his part-time role. At $119 an hour, Zoll was the district’s highest paid hourly employee at more than double the hourly wages of his predecessor. The district notes that he was not paid benefits.

CalPERS has restrictions on retirees going to work for other agencies that are part of the state system. One of the those restrictions limits such retirees from serving in an interim position for longer than 12 months. That is when the agency is saying Zoll’s pension should have been cut off.

North County Transit officials previously said they believed the arrangement with Zoll was legal because his total compensation was less than former security Chief David Papworth’s.

When asked for reaction, district spokeswoman Deborah Castillo said the district would not comment because it is a personnel issue. Zoll did not return a call for comment. He has 30 days to contest the CalPERS decision.